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Myth and Mankind
The Way To Eternity: Egyptian Myth
A dramatic series that captures, culture by culture, the information that never makes it into the history strange stories, mystic rites, angry gods, vision quests.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 16, 2024
This is where my fascination with ancient Egyptian religion really began. Looking back on it now, having digested many more scholarly books on the topic, it's hard for me to settle on a rating. I've long harbored suspicions that this series treats the cultures it discussed in a rather shallow way, but for the mythology I know best, it's not as superficial as I thought it might be.
Much of it is a wide-ranging, and reasonably accurate, description of Egyptian religious beliefs and practices. But when it tells actual myths and other stories, it's inconsistent in describing which texts it's using and what viewpoints they were written from. When telling the Osiris myth, for example, it sets Plutarch's distinctive version of the story apart from the rest. But when talking about Horus and Set's struggle for the throne, it incorporates all the episodes from Papyrus Chester Beatty I without mentioning that they come from a specific source, let alone saying that the tone of this text is so comedic that many Egyptologists have suggested that it's some kind of satire. The three stories from Papyrus Westcar are all stated to come from that single narrative, but the stories of Neferkaptah and Setne Khamwas are set apart from each other in such a way that I thought they were separate (though obviously related) stories rather than two parts of the same text. Moreover, the book only somewhat describes the metaphorical meaning of myths, and on occasion it says something that is, as far as I can tell, baseless.
This was probably one of the better books about Egyptian mythology when it came out (better, for instance, than the one the Egyptologist George Hart wrote a few years earlier). But in the 21st century, several Egyptologists—Geraldine Pinch, Joyce Tyldesley, and Garry Shaw—have succeeded in conveying the deeper meaning of the mythology while staying accessible to the lay reader. If you're new to Egyptian myths, I recommend starting with one of their books instead.
Much of it is a wide-ranging, and reasonably accurate, description of Egyptian religious beliefs and practices. But when it tells actual myths and other stories, it's inconsistent in describing which texts it's using and what viewpoints they were written from. When telling the Osiris myth, for example, it sets Plutarch's distinctive version of the story apart from the rest. But when talking about Horus and Set's struggle for the throne, it incorporates all the episodes from Papyrus Chester Beatty I without mentioning that they come from a specific source, let alone saying that the tone of this text is so comedic that many Egyptologists have suggested that it's some kind of satire. The three stories from Papyrus Westcar are all stated to come from that single narrative, but the stories of Neferkaptah and Setne Khamwas are set apart from each other in such a way that I thought they were separate (though obviously related) stories rather than two parts of the same text. Moreover, the book only somewhat describes the metaphorical meaning of myths, and on occasion it says something that is, as far as I can tell, baseless.
This was probably one of the better books about Egyptian mythology when it came out (better, for instance, than the one the Egyptologist George Hart wrote a few years earlier). But in the 21st century, several Egyptologists—Geraldine Pinch, Joyce Tyldesley, and Garry Shaw—have succeeded in conveying the deeper meaning of the mythology while staying accessible to the lay reader. If you're new to Egyptian myths, I recommend starting with one of their books instead.
August 11, 2020
Ack. This was so good. Very enlightening and full of knowledge. It touched on the culture and society pieces of ancient Egypt that you won’t find in most history books— so if you need a read, check this out!
February 11, 2009
This is my new bible. A great book about many gods and goddesses and how the ancient world thought.
July 26, 2011
Great photos and good information!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews